


Blood Moon

by BellasHeadband



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, BAMF Rosalie Hale, Bella Swan with a Backbone, Bisexual Bella Swan, Edward Cullen Being An Asshole, F/F, Hold On Tight Spider Monkey, No Lesbians Die, Porn With Plot, Tall Vampire Gf, Twilight Renaissance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:22:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28987047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellasHeadband/pseuds/BellasHeadband
Summary: Edward and Bella have been dating each other loosely like high schoolers do, but this AU introduces a complication. Bella also has a crush on Rosalie Hale, and Rosalie is more fun, less old school, and significantly less dangerous than Edward. For the purposes of this fic, Emmet and Rosalie are more like fuck buddies than "soul mates", and Edward and Bella's relationship status is "it's complicated". The story will follow most of the canon plot lines with the added details that Edward very seriously cannot control himself around Bella's blood, and Bella, never having dated anyone before, needs to test the waters a little more than she did in the books.
Relationships: Rosalie Hale & Bella Swan, Rosalie Hale/Bella Swan
Comments: 13
Kudos: 125





	1. She Already Ate

**Author's Note:**

> All events up until this point are exactly as you remember them. Edward and Bella have been fostering their new relationship, and he's told her how dangerous it is for him to be around her. He's already saved her from the car accident and the creepy men in Port Angeles, she's seen him sparkle in the sun, and now he's taking her to his house for the first time to meet his family officially. Just like in the first book. 
> 
> The AU starts with the iconic line, "she already ate".

Edward Cullen’s house was beautiful—sleek, modern architecture nestled on a small cliff in the woods. As he parked the Volvo in the driveway, I let the reason for the seclusion of their forest mansion sink in, but not too much. I had learned a lot about him and his family in the past few days, but that didn’t mean I was completely comfortable with it yet. Edward put out his arm, motioning me up the front porch ahead of him. Now that I knew how old he really was, it was stunningly hard to miss. He was way too formal to be 17. “I need to start paying more attention," I mumbled to myself.

"Paying attention to what?" Edward asked as he swung the door of his chosen family's home open. I had forgotten about the super vampire hearing. 

"I don't know. Just talking to myself,” I responded, distracted by the grand foyer we were stepping into. And the smell of, "Is that...tomato sauce? I thought you didn't eat."

"Smells like we’re eating today,” Edward rolled his eyes at the thought, and then stopped short. “No shoes in the house. Carlisle is a neat freak."

I slipped my shoes off, hesitated, and then pulled my socks off as well. The tile was looking ominously slippery. Edward followed suit and led me into the kitchen. He somehow moved even more gracefully in his own home, without the threat of outside eyes. I felt a warmth at knowing I was an insider.

"Isabella!" a cheerful voice greeted me from behind the kitchen island. Edward introduced the small woman with caramel-colored hair as Esme, his mother. I knew he was using “mother” in a much less biological way. He had told me before that she was only technically about 6 years older than he was, but since their looks were frozen in time, she had to play the part her body fit best. Edward continued to formally introduce me to his "siblings”. I nodded, pretending Angela hadn't already fully briefed me on each of the immortal teenagers now crowding into the kitchen, having heard our arrival. I was lucky I had already memorized their names. Lucky because as soon as Esme had drawn my attention into the room, my focus was completely derailed.

She was there. The blonde. And she was the only thing I could focus on from the moment we entered the kitchen.

"Rose, we have a guest," Edward scolded.

Her voice cut through the chatter of her siblings like an expertly aimed arrow, "Yes, Edward, I'm aware. I could smell her from the driveway." Rosalie Hale finished washing her hands, flicking away the water so quickly that I never would have seen it had I not been hyper focused on her movements—my body frozen in place by the sound of her voice. She turned, painfully, purposefully slowly to face us.

"Hello, Isabella.” My ears burned red hot as the blood rushed to my face, embarrassingly visible under my pale skin. Edward took a sharp step away from me. Could he...smell it when I blushed?

"It'sBellaactuallyEveryonecallsmeBella,” I blurted out so fast it was almost unintelligible. Rosalie Hale was going to be a problem.

She looked like a Barbie and spoke like a CEO. It was more than mildly intimidating. Even worse, I was starting to get the impression that although Edward couldn't read my mind, maybe his hot, tall, scary sister could. She just stared back at me, long manicured fingers taping on the crystal salad bowl in her hands. Calculating. But calculating what, I had no idea.

Esme must have sensed the tension and attempted to salvage the mood, "As I'm sure you've guessed from the wonderful smell, Rose made Italian for lunch."

"Yes! It smells so gre..." Edward cut me off.

“She already ate," he deadpanned making direct eye contact with Rosalie.

The next moment felt like it happened in slow motion, even though I knew it was, in fact, inhumanly fast. Their eyes locked for the briefest moment, and before the words were fully out of her brother's mouth, a single one of Rosalie's fingers twitched. A normal person would have regained composure without anyone noticing, but, as I had learned after the parking lot incident at school, vampires were stronger than they looked. That slightest twitch of her finger and the crystal bowl Rosalie Hale had been holding shattered into a fine mess of twinkling glass shards. I watched them plink off the counter as all heads turned toward the sound.

“Fuck, Edward! That was a nice bowl," she lamented briefly before turning to get a dustpan from the pantry.

Edward, one step ahead (presumably reading her mind), beat her to it lightning fast. It looked as if he disappeared from one end of the room and reappeared behind the counter with the dust pan. If I didn’t know what was happening I wouldn't have believed it.

"Oh, of course it's my fault you popped it like a balloon. After all this time, you still don’t know your own strength, do you?" he teased as he swept tiny bits of crystal into the dust pan with his bare hand. I winced and felt a strong hand land on my shoulder. Emmet.

"Ed, you forget to tell her about the marble skin?" Edward ignored him and he leaned down to my ear in a dramatic aside, keeping his eyes on his fighting siblings in the kitchen, “Vampire skin is like, super hard. Normal stuff can't cut through it like human skin. Comes in handy in a house where everyone's always breaking priceless family heirlooms." As if on cue, another dish shattered. This time it looked like Rosalie had purposely lobbed it at Edward's head. She didn't miss, but he also didn’t move an inch when it collided with his face. "See, head as hard as a rock," Emmet said with a chuckle.

"I heard that, Em." Edward spat back.

"Oh, for Pete's sake. Can't you three be civil?"

Alice.

"Bella's our first guest since…I don't know…a long time! And you're fighting over bowls,” she turned to the fifth and final Cullen “sibling” standing next to her. “Jaz, can you?," she waved her hand around to finish her thought.

“I don't know if I want to," her other half, a boy with sandy blonde hair and the slightest hint of a Southern accent, replied.

The smallest Cullen closed her eyes and carefully responded, "Jasper Hale, if you don't calm them down, it will be more than just bowls that are broken today." She opened her eyes and shot him a meaningful look.

“You’re no fun, Alice, you know that?" he said as he shifted his stance slightly and focused on his now verging-on-feral vampire siblings.

"Someone has to be reasonable here," she said as she slipped a dainty arm around his waist.

Rosalie and Edward both stopped and whipped around to shout at Jasper in unison, "SERIOUSLY?"

"Am I missing something?” I asked Emmet who was still by my side, leaning against the doorframe, enjoying the spectacle.

“Oh, um, yeah. Jasper like, can control vibes. Rose and Ed hate it when he uses it on them, though. They don't really like anyone telling them what to do, honestly, vampire powers or not…" He trailed off at the end, as if he wasn't really talking to me anymore but just kind of talking to talk.

I took that as my chance to try again with Rosalie. It seemed like they had been pretty thorough in cleaning up the glass, so I padded further into the kitchen and rounded the island. “I'm sorry about lunch, Rosalie. If I had known you were cooking I wouldn't have eaten ahead of time. I just... Edward told me you don't eat." That was pretty good. I mentally congratulated myself and wondered if Jasper’s calming energy might be affecting me as well.

Rose eyed me again. "We eat. Just not pasta," she grinned, flashing her perfect, dangerous teeth.

Then her face went blank, and she stiffened.

"Get him!" I heard Alice scream to Emmet before she and Jasper blinked out of the room. The following sequence of events was a blur. There was a loud crash behind me as Emmet slammed into Edward and pinned him to the kitchen floor. Everything went cold and I had the vague realization that my feet were no longer on the ground before my head collided with something solid. I began to see stars as the room quickly spun out of view.

Then, black.

\------------------------------

"Hey, Bella. Bella. Are you okay?” I slowly began to resurface, regaining awareness of my surroundings but only slightly. “I'm so sorry. I think I picked you up too quickly. Fuck."

I was in a small room. A Bathroom. And the chair was cold on the back of my legs. No, not a chair, a sink. I was sitting on the sink in a bathroom with…

"Shit!" Rosalie swore again as she rummaged around in the cabinet under the sink, my toes dangling above her head. "What good is living with a fucking ER doctor if there aren’t even any bandaids in this tomb of a house?!"

“Why are we in a bathroom?" I asked quietly, hesitantly.

She sat back on her heels and peered up at me from the floor. Looking down at her between my bare knees, I tried not to blush again. She pretended not to notice.

"I thought we cleaned it all up, but I guess not. Stupid 'no shoes' rule," she wasn’t really talking to me but mumbling to herself instead, trying to piece together what had happened.

“Rosalie." Hearing me say her name snapped her out of it. She let herself plop all the way onto the floor and spread out her long legs a bit more before she spoke.

“You stepped on some glass, and Edward smelled the blood. I don't think he was ready for it. The other times, like after the car…" she waved her hand around "thing, he had had time to compose himself before confronting it. We talked about it after. It was still difficult, but he had seen it coming. This time it was a surprise." She scrubbed her hands through her shiny blonde hair and rested her elbows on the knees of her tight black jeans. "Are you okay?" she asked again, earnestly, no longer making eye contact. It caught me off guard.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think the cut is dried up already," I said taking my foot into my hand, forgetting for a moment that I was sitting on a counter in a short dress. From her vantage point on the floor, it would have been Rosalie’s turn to blush now. If vampires could blush.

"My head hurts though. Did I fall?"

I caught her gaze snap up to meet my eyes, and I tried to discreetly close my legs. I didn't want to embarrass her—or myself, frankly. She responded, hand back in her hair, a twinge of guilt in her voice, "I think I may have smacked your head with my shoulder on the way out of the kitchen."

I laughed, "Good to know I'm not the only clumsy one here."

She was about to protest when we both heard a car door slam outside followed by the chirp of its lock. Tension rolled off of Rosalie in a palpable wave.

"Oh, thank God. Carlisle's home."


	2. Concussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one, picking up right where we left off in Ch1. The next one is going to be much longer. Cue "Supermassive Black Hole".

"We're in here," Rosalie said, not raising her vice above a normal volume. I realized whomever she was talking to could probably hear her from anywhere in the house. That got me curious.

“Rosalie," I started quietly.

"Hm?” she responded, distracted as she finally located a rogue bandaid in the back of the cabinet above the toilet.

“Alice can see the future. Edward can read minds, Jasper can do... whatever he does,” she laughed at that as I trailed off.

“You want to know if I have special powers?" she asked. I nodded, hesitant to press her on it, but she continued, "nothing beyond the usual stuff—super speed, strength, hearing, vision." She tightened her ponytail in the mirror behind me and continued, her words slower, more deliberate, "Glossy hair. Sparkling eyes.” She rested her fingertips on the tops of my knees and leaned forward, closing the gap between us. “Perfect skin."

I stopped breathing. She was so close I could smell her shampoo. Her eyes narrowed, and she grinned that scary, markedly inhuman grin, "but we don't blush like that underneath, so I guess that's one point for you humans." 

I clutched my burning-hot cheeks instinctively, like an idiot cartoon. That made her laugh again, an almost operatic tone that echoed through the bathroom. Not like Alice's manic, twinkling laugh or Esme’s demure giggle.

"What's so funny in here?” Carlisle to the rescue. “Hello, Miss Swan.” He pushed the door open casually as Rosalie extracted her fingers from my kneecaps, leaving goosebumps up and down my bare legs. Her vampire father quickly surveyed the scene as he entered the bathroom, “Edward caught me on my way in. He made it seem like someone had been murdered at lunch."

"You found us pretty slowly for someone investigating a homicide attempt," Rosalie said sarcastically, now perched on the edge of the large white clawfoot tub on the opposite side of the room, arms crossed under her chest. Well, that was distracting. I struggled to focus from my seat on the cold porcelain sink.

"I, uh." Come on, Bella, use your words. "I cut myself in the kitchen, and it kind of...escalated quickly."

Rosalie snorted, "Edward almost ate her for lunch.”

“Well I'm glad you can joke about it now," Carlisle turned and shot his adopted daughter a look. She had the decency to look sorry for making light of such a close call. Until then I hadn’t really considered the true danger I had been in. I didn’t want to think about it.

"Anything else I should know about, or are we all good here?" Carlisle asked, slipping into doctor mode. “You appear to be all in one piece.” He offered a hand to help me down from my makeshift seat.

“It really wasn't a big..." I couldn’t finish my sentence. My head rushed as my feet hit the ground, and I began to see stars for the second time today. Carlisle steadied me with strong hands. "Woah,” I mumbled to myself.

"Rose,” Carlisle was using his dad voice now, “Care to explain?" 

"Ah. Right. Humans are so fragile,” Rosalie said under her breath uncrossing her arms and suddenly looking very guilty. She gripped the edge of the tub, "When we were, how do I phrase this…escaping my rabid brother? I may have, slightly, smacked Bella's head on my shoulder." 

I reached up, remembering the ache from earlier, and a second set of ice-cold fingers met mine on the now golf-ball-sized lump that had formed under my hair. Carlisle's eyes widened for only a moment before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys. A small light was attached to the keychain.

I smiled at the very normal dad-liness of a tactical keychain like that.

“I’m going to use this to check your pupillary response. Is that okay?" he asked, holding up the small light before shining it in my eyes. I nodded permission. 

Doctor Cullen proceeded to walk me through a series of little tests. He clicked the light off and sighed, turning to Rosalie, “How is it that my children have given this poor girl a concussion on two separate occasions in the span of, what? A month?”

“It's been more than a month, and mine was unavoidable,” Edward sulked in the doorway.

"Oh yeah and mine was totally on purpose." Rosalie scoffed, standing from her seat on the tub. “Nice of you to check in on Clarice, Doctor Lecter!”

Edward visibly seethed. He did not appreciate the name calling.

“Hey, cut it out you two!” I was a little shocked to see that they immediately listened to Carlisle, and quickly abandoned the petty hostility toward each other. He may not have been their biological father, but he definitely played a leadership role in their family—maybe more like a captain and his troops.

“Bella, I don't want to be a bad host, but think you should go home," Carlisle said carefully. He was right. This was enough excitement for one afternoon.

“Of course,” I responded, "Charlie's actually expecting me back for dinner, so." I started maneuvering around the three marble statues standing by the door, staring at each other. Rose and Carlisle were focusing intently on Edward, and the three of them had stopped moving entirely. It looked like they were having some sort of silent exchange.

"Don't worry,” I heard a familiar high-pitched voice in the hall beyond Edward's shoulder. “She'll be fine for baseball." Alice kept walking—or dancing really. I don't know if you could call her particular brand of movement "walking".

"No way. Oh, this will be classic," Rosalie pushed her brother out of the doorway and sped after Alice. 

“Wait, did she say baseball?" I asked. Edward looked at his vampire dad for permission before responding. Carlisle scrubbed his hand across his eyes in frustration. He turned to follow the girls, shouting a single "Fine." over his shoulder from the end of the hall.

Edward smiled, and his eyes lit up briefly before resuming his usual stoic poker face.

“Hey, I can't read minds, remember? What the hell is going on?" I asked, more than a little frustrated at being left in the dark. Edward made eye contact with me for the first time since he had come into the bathroom. His eyes seemed much brighter than they were earlier. Had he fed somehow while I was with Rose? He closed the space between us and slid his hand around my waist, leading me into the hall and back toward our shoes in the front foyer. His had was cold, but I felt a giddy warmth at the intimate gesture.

"We're going to put our shoes on. I’m going to drive you home, and then, if you want to, which Alice has already basically confirmed, I’m going to pick you up later so we can play baseball. How does that sound?" he said it all so casually. It was disarming how much of a smooth talker he could be when he wanted to. 

I gave my best shot at a bantering, "I can't guarantee I’ll be a valuable player, but if Alice says I'm there, then I’m there."

Edward Cullen smiled then, an uncharacteristically roguish, ear to ear smile, as he snatched his keys from their hook and ushered me out to his car in the driveway.

It looked like it was going to rain.


	3. That Leech

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella tries to decide if she still wants to date Edward after he tried to kill her at lunch. I promise we're getting back to Rosalie immediately. I just needed to set the scene a little more.

The drive back to Charlie’s was pleasant. I found some mix CDs in the glove compartment of Edward’s car, and he relished in the chance to give me the rundown on why each song led perfectly into the next. He could be so pretentious, but he was hot, so I was prepared to let this one slide. Also, it was nice to listen to his voice. I smiled to myself thinking he could have a great career as a late-night radio host. NPR would be lucky to have him.

I took the opportunity during Edward’s music lesson to tune out and file through the day’s events so far. I could sense the mood had definitely shifted between us. For the past few weeks—ever since he saved me from being squashed into roadkill—I had thought we kind of had a real thing going. Now I wasn’t so sure that was ultimately what I wanted. I'll be the first to admit I knew nothing about romantic relationships. It sounds sad, but I barely knew what it was like to have real friends—the kind of friends who became like siblings (which I also did not have). Life was fine before the Cullens, don't get me wrong, but I guess I was just naïve about what a real, true relationship with a peer was supposed to look like or had the potential to be. 

Seeing Alice and Jasper together in the kitchen orbiting each other’s every move like they were pulled together by some super secret Love Gravity had started to put it into perspective for me. Did love like that happen instantly or was it something you built over time? Kissing Edward hadn’t made me feel like I was alive for the first time. Frankly, under the circumstances, it made me fear for my life—with a sprinkle of “so this is what it’s like to kiss a boy?” mixed in. I’d also never been so physically close to someone my age before, so there were also those teen hormone things happening. 

Maybe it was all just a need to be wanted by someone—not necessarily physically desired, but just kind of bonded to someone my age in a special way, to have a shared experience and understanding of each other. Even Rosalie and Edward had that strong bond that was unique to adult siblings who’d put up with each other’s bullshit for decades. The Cullens had lived together for so long as a family unit that they were experts at relationships. How could they not be? They had navigated so many complicated situations together. The world was a different place to them, but they all understood each other’s role in it. 

Then there was me: a genuine article, mortal 17-year-old who had only been kissed once in the middle of the night as a test to see if the vampire boy who was her lab partner would kill her by accident or not. It was a nice kiss, sure. Did it give me butterflies? Of course. Firsts tend to do that whether you have control of your emotions or not. We had said we loved each other like any dumb teenagers do in a situation like that, but words are relative to their circumstances. “Love” is the most loaded word of all. Charlie and mom were in love once—enough to get married and have a child, only to realize they weren’t soulmates over something much less sinister than Charlie trying to drain Renee’s blood. 

As Edward turned his silver Volvo onto Charlie's street, I considered the possibility that maybe this gorgeous, dangerous boy I had thought I loved after kissing one time might not be "the one". I decided I'd have to keep tabs on it. It was the mature thing to do. After all, for what little experience I might have had with romance, I was pretty sure you weren't supposed to be attacked by your soulmate the first time he took you to meet his parents. Thank God for Rosalie. 

I was pulled out of what was shaping up to be a nice Undead Barbie themed daydream when the car stopped short of the driveway.

“Hey, what's up? I thought you were going to wait with me ‘till Charlie gets home," I asked, confused until I looked in the direction Edward was staring.

"I think I'd better go actually. It looks like you've got company, " my maybe ex-boyfriend said, his knuckles tensing around the steering wheel. The car was in "park" but he'd left the engine running.

"That's just Billy and his son Jake. They probably came by to shoot the shit with Charlie. Billy's like my uncle." I tried to process the look on Edward's face. "What's up with you? Do you have some high school jock beef with Jacob Black that I should know about? He doesn't even go to our school."

I reached for my bag, and opened the door but didn't leave the car just yet, waiting for him to respond. Edward kept his shining golden eyes on the Blacks, "It's a little more complicated than high school bullshit," he laughed without humor. "I'm flattered that you even think I socialize enough to have petty rivalries like that." He was sounding more like his old-world self in that moment, his 17 year-old-facade crumbling fast. 

"Okay,” I rolled my eyes at his attitude. “Well, right now we look like sociopaths sitting here having this staring contest, so I'm gonna go. Text me when you leave to come get me for baseball." He snapped out of it at the mention of baseball and looked at me intensely, morphing back into the broody teenager who I had, in that particular moment, an incredibly tenuous crush on. Edward Cullen was on thin ice.

“Sorry, yeah. I'll text you after dinner," he reached one hand, too fast, across the center console and pulled my face in quickly for a very unexpected kiss. It started supernaturally fast but he slowed down to human speed once our mouths connected, grazing my bottom lip with his tongue for a split second. My head absolutely exploded.

“Oh!” I said into his mouth just before he leaned back to give me air. “Okay," I tumbled out of the car blushing furiously as he craned his neck up and waved goodbye across the passenger seat. His perfect messy hair flopped down into his face with annoyingly rom-com heartthrob timing. He raked his fingers through it, and the sun caught his hand just right, making it literally sparkle. He looked like an Instagram filter. 

"Bye, Edward," I managed to get out before slamming the door shut and dashing toward the house.

Not only had the kiss come out of fucking nowhere and caught me completely off guard–did he think you were still a couple? No. He tried to kill you two hours ago, Bella!—but surely he knew Billy and Jake were watching. Why wouldn't he have at least moved at a human speed to keep up his precious mortal appearances?! I was mortified at the thought of my basically-uncle and de facto little cousin watching me tongue kiss a super model in his fancy car.

I was walking fast and reeling through a thousand thoughts, so I didn't notice the uprooted branch on Charlie's lawn until I was already face first in the dirt.

"Bella, Jesus!” Jacob ran over to help me up, but he didn't look happy about it.

"Nice to see you too, Jake. What are you guys doing here?” I brushed myself off and directed that second part to his dad who was idling by the front porch in his wheelchair.

"We came to talk to you,” Billy started, "about that boy actually. But," he gave Jacob a look of exasperation. That was a rare emotion for Billy. His son continued the thought.

“I mean, we weren't expecting to see you making out with that leech in his car.”

"Jacob!" Billy cautioned firmly.

"Leech?!" I repeated, in shock. So they already knew about the Cullens. I recalled Jacob’s "scary stories" from our beach day at La Push. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that those legends had more truth to them than I originally expected.

"Please tell me that was an optical illusion and you're not actually dating Eduard Cullen, Bella," Jacob waited for an answer. His father said nothing this time.

I stuttered, honestly unsure how to answer that question, "I’m not d...you know, it's not really your business, is it?!"

"You'd be surprised." It was Billy who answered this time. That really threw me for a loop. He continued, "There are things you don't know, Bella—things you need to stay out of, not just for your safety but Charlie's as well.”

I started up the porch, leaving Billy and Jacob at the bottom step, buying myself a little time to process what I'd just heard as I dug for my keys.

My keychain jingled loudly, and I turned back to the Blacks as the lock clicked open. I gave it my best effort to sound authoritative, "I appreciate the concern, but I don't see how who I'm kissing has anything to do with you two. I'm sorry if that sounds rude, but please stay out of my hypothetical love life. It's very weird." I timed my little speech just right, slamming the door behind me, not giving them a chance to respond.

"That was weird right?” I checked in with myself out loud. The encounter had unnerved me for two reasons: 1) Simply, what the fuck did my dad's best friend think he was doing lecturing me about boyfriends? and 2) They were definitely right about Edward being the most dangerous possible person for me to be kissing. I don't think Rosalie would deign to step down from her pedestal to even breathe the same air as Jacob Black, but this might be the one thing they'd agree on after today's events.

I looked up at the microwave clock and saw it was about time for Charlie to get home. I was glad he hadn't been there for the standoff in the yard—or to see Edward give me a super speed vampire kiss on his property, armed with whatever dangerous sheriff stuff he had on his person. Living with a cop was not my favorite thing about this arrangement in Forks, for a multitude of reasons.

The front door slammed as I was pulling dinner ingredients out of the fridge. "Hey, Dad!" I yelled over my shoulder.

"Hey, Bells. How was your lunch date?"

"It was not a date,” I responded firmly.

"Uh oh, trouble in Paradise," Charlie would never tease like that if he actually thought I was in a serious relationship. I rolled my eyes, making sure he saw me do it to drive home my next point, and to get him off my ass about it.

“I think Edward Cullen and I are just going to stay friends for now." It felt kind of right once I said it out loud. He raised an eyebrow sensing I had more to say. I continued," Actually, now I have a whole coven of friends! His brothers and sisters are amazing." He laughed at my word choice.

“You read too many fantasy books Bella…‘coven’?" he scoffed and chuckled again to himself.

“Fine, would you prefer 'team’?" I asked.

"Oh, is that a dig at me for watching too much football instead of reading books?"

“Maybe, but it's also me telling you that the Cullens are picking me up after dinner to play baseball with them tonight." His eyes widened in genuine surprise.

"Wow,” he paused, prepping his next dad joke. “Seems a little life threatening to all involved, but okay."

"Dad!" I scolded. He was right, though. I sucked at sports. I was glad Carlisle would be there for my possible third Cullen-inflicted concussion.

Charlie walked into the living room to turn on the news and shouted back to me from the other side of his cozy little house, "Tell them they better not bring you home in a coffin."

"Very funny, Charlie." I stifled a much-needed laugh. Dad had vampire jokes too.


	4. Wet T-Shirt Contest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella and the Cullens FINALLY play baseball.

To my surprise and honest delight, Edward was not alone when he honked his car horn outside Charlie's house after dinner. His sisters hung out of the windows yelling and waving to us on the porch.

“Don't say ‘bye’ just yet, Bella! You have to change first," Rosalie cupped her hands around her mouth as she yelled out to you, making it look like she had to do that for her voice to carry across the yard. Making the volume look human. She was, of course, capable of throwing her voice just fine from several blocks away without the aid of her hand megaphone.

Alice ducked down, reached into the back seat, and emerged from the passenger seat of the Volvo with a tote bag. She skipped up the steps to hand it off to me. She was wearing what I assumed to be a preview of what was inside the tote. Usually families had silly, matching t-shirts for an occasion like this, but not the Cullens. They took it to the next level. I peeked in the bag and wondered how much money a set of custom baseball uniforms like this would cost.

"Hello, Sir. I’m Alice, Edward’s sister. It's so nice to meet you officially,” she shook Charlie's hand politely.

"Hurry up! We don't have all night!" Rosalie yelled again from the car. She wasn't annoyed, only teasing. And uncharacteristically excited.

I took the bag from Alice and went inside to change while the little vampire chatted up my dad on the porch. The clothes fit perfectly, maybe a little too perfectly. I turned around in my full-length mirror to get a quick took at the behind—the baseball pants were snug, to put it mildly and the blue-gray was quite a color choice. I had to admit though, with the white pinstripe shirt tucked into them, my ass looked pretty good. For a human ass, at least.

If I had felt confident in my mirror, by myself, all of it was gone when I emerged outside again. Hanging out with supernaturally good-looking people was going to be a real challenge for my self-esteem. Rosalie and Edward were outside of the car now, leaning up against the doors, chatting with Charlie and Alice. All eyes were on me as I did a walk of shame toward them in my new outfit.

"Oh it’s perfect!” exclaimed Alice genuinely. I figured she must have been the mastermind behind the custom uniforms.

Charlie laughed out loud at the sight of me, and mumbled a very sarcastic "good luck" over his shoulder as he reentered the house.

Edward just stared with his arms crossed, grinning like an idiot. He, of course, looked like an Abercrombie model in his uniform. His hair peeked out from under his hat in the front like someone had styled it for a photoshoot. The hat was even perched strategically on the back of his head, not pulled down across his forehead like a nerd—like I had done. I adjusted mine self-consciously, and pulled my ponytail tighter. It was embarrassing just how un-cool I looked next to him.

Then there was Rosalie. She was holding the back door open for me and stifling her own grin. Her hat was on backwards, and her long blonde hair was braided to one side. She looked like a jock but in a way that was incredibly disarming.

When I climbed into the car, I felt like an electric fence had been built between us. If I touched her by accident, surely I'd be shocked to death. My whole body was radiating heat from the stress of being so close to someone so confidently sexy. She slid in next to me, and the electric fence super charged. I wondered if she could feel it too. Why was I reacting like this? And more notably, why didn't this happen when I was with Edward? Maybe I was just more used to being around him by now. 

Yeah, I convinced myself, that must be it.

We made our way out to the edge of town where there weren't any baseball diamonds I was aware of. Alice and Edward sang along to the radio while Rosalie smiled, texting lightning fast on her pink Sidekick.

"Hooold you iiiin myyyy arms! I just wanted to hoooId... " you laughed out loud at the two of them scream singing in the front seat. In that moment, the four of you could easily have passed for a bunch of regular teenagers. A group of friends clowning around. It felt so normal compared to all the drama that had gone down earlier.

“Are they always like this in the car?" I asked Rosalie over her siblings’ screeching. I figured I should at least try to break down the electric fence. She slid her phone shut and pocketed it, smiling at them as she answered, "Only when Muse comes on. They're SO ANNOYING." She yelled the last part into Alice's ear, and her sister swatted her face away over the headrest of the passenger seat.

I laughed, and she smiled at the sound. Her smile gave me a little more courage. I was slowly starting to forget about how physically intimidating she was. "So, why baseball?" I’d been genuinely wondering that all day, but only just then had it occurred to ask.

"Other than the fact that it’s a pretty old sport compared to some other ones," Rosalie spoke casually as she watched the trees pass by out her window, "it's the only one that really lets us use our full strength."

"Plus, no goals," Edward added. I hadn't realized he was listening. I should have though. Edward was always listening. “I don’t think the FHS football team would appreciate Rosalie denting their goal posts.” She stuck out her tongue at him in the rearview mirror, and he made a face back. They were really in rare form tonight. It was weirdly endearing.

"Right, so we're driving out into the woods so you can smack a ball a mile into the forest and run lightning fast to catch it?" and nobody will see us out there, I finished the thought in my head.

"Precisely," Alice chimed in. "Speaking of lightning." She paused for effect as the sky flashed and a large clap of thunder rolled through the forest. We were driving on a dirt path, sheltered by thick evergreens.

"Are you kidding?” I lamented, “Alice, I thought you could predict the weather!” Another bolt of lightning lit up the tops of the trees, followed by more thunder. How did she miss this? Our game was going to be rained out before it even started.

"I can, and I did, Bella. This is perfect baseball weather." Alice turned around to take in my skeptical face, and Rosalie snorted in amusement. "You'll see why in a... oh that was fast! Everybody out!" Alice zipped out of the passenger seat before the car was even in Park, and opened everyone's doors in the blink of an eye. She landed in front of the car like The Roadrunner, tapping her toe impatiently. Apparently, a single second was too much time to waste. 

Rosalie and Edward took their time getting out of the car. She was looking at him intently, and he smiled and nodded at her unspoken question. Reading her thoughts. That was starting to get kind of annoying. 

Edward shouted across the clearing to the rest of his family who had gotten there before us to set up the makeshift field, "We decided the teams. Our car vs your car.”

The four of us met our newly minted rivals at the rubber mat that was to serve as home plate. The only person missing from the standoff was Esme. She was rummaging in the trunk of Emmett’s Jeep for something. Emmett raised an eyebrow at Edward’s proposal. "I thought we were gonna do girls versus boys. Afraid we'd annihilate you if we had Edward, Rose?"

His sister returned his heckling tone, "Alice and I just thought you could use some help from Esme." She paused, picking at her nails lazily. "She graciously agreed to join the losing team to even out the odds a little." 

"Don't be ridiculous, you two," Esme approached with a catcher's mitt on her small, marble hand. I was 110% positive she didn't need it; everyone else was gloveless. Maybe she just liked the novelty of the traditional sports equipment. 

"Hi again Miss Bella," she addressed me warmly and took my hand in her un-gloved one "Will you be our umpire? I'm going to catch for both teams to keep it a fair game.” She rolled her eyes at Emmet and Rosalie who pouted back at her like little kids. Very tall, strong little kids.

"We’ll get her to play one of these days," Carlisle planted a kiss on top of his wife's  
baseball cap. She rolled her eyes again, but she seemed amused. Everyone seemed in exceptionally high spirits.

Then, it began to rain.

It was more like a mist at first, but I could tell we were in for a downpour soon. I held my hands over my head in a weak attempt at shelter. To my surprise, it worked. Or at least I thought it did. A strong, slender hand rested on my shoulder from behind. 

“You'll probably want this," Edward said in a low voice, close to my ear. I shivered, not sure if it was his smooth tenor or the mist that gave me the sudden chill. His other hand was holding a large umbrella over me.

"You guys are seriously going to play in the rain?" I asked, and he nodded happily, his damp hair already starting to stick to his forehead. "And you expect me to watch you have all the fun while I stay dry and sit back and observe like a soccer mom. Under this umbrella?”

"Well when you put it that way..." Edward had not been expecting that response. I was starting to get the hang of surprising him. Since he couldn’t read my thoughts, I would have bet I was the only person who could really catch him off guard. It was a small power I held over him, and I liked it. A lot.

"Yeah, Ed, she's not a grandma like you," Rosalie snatched the umbrella and tossed it into the bushes. The rain picked up as if on cue. We were all going to be drenched after one inning, and for some reason, it made me giddy.

"Let's get this show on the road, team!" Rosalie shouted to her family who were all in various stages of warming up. Not like they needed to.

"What happened to the umbrella?" Alice asked, averting her attention to us from her spot on the pitcher's mound.

"Bella prefers to get soaking wet," Rosalie answered with strategic emphasis on the word “soaking”. Then she did something that truly rocked me to my core. Rosalie Hale winked at me as she skipped off into the outfield.

What was that? 

Did she make a sex joke, or was I overthinking it? With that wink and the way her dark colored bra was starting to show through her white, rain-drenched jersey, “soaking wet” was definitely a description of…something. Thank God I didn’t have to actually try to play this sport with them right now. They’d have to give me a pretty big handicap for unbridled horniness. Luckily, Esme saved me from death by hot baseball players with her brilliant suggestion that I be the umpire.

Simply calling the Cullens “athletic” wouldn't do them justice. They were machines. And after the first swing connected with that poor, unsuspecting baseball, I knew exactly why they needed the rain. I was shocked the bat didn't snap in half with the noise it made. It sounded exactly like a clap of very close thunder and lighting. Also, God forbid the ball hit a tree. It could probably burn a hole right through the trunk at that speed.

For the first few innings, the game played out pretty smoothly. I was having a grand old time watching the supernatural family zip around each other, wailing ball after ball into the trees only to hear Edward or Emmett yell "Caught it!" from half a mile away. I made a half assed attempt at umpiring, but most of my attention was honestly on the vampire wet t-shirt contest. 

There was so much to look at that I didn't notice at first when Alice suddenly stopped moving. Edward simultaneously dashed off the field in the opposite direction of the ball Jasper had just line-drived past the trees in the outfield.

The umbrella was inexplicably back over my head, and Edward was anything but calm. "Put your hair down," he said quietly but firmly, not giving me a choice as he slipped the hair tie from my ponytail and readjusted my hat for me. Alice was by my side then as well.

"That's not going to help," she said grimly. "Can we get her out of here? How close are they?"

"Too close," Edward said, sheltering me behind his body.

"What's going..." I began before he cut me off.

"Stay behind me. Don't move. Don't speak,” his response was deadly serious.

I strained to see around Edward's back and immediately regretted it. Rosalie emerged from the trees with Jasper's ball. She looked paler than usual, if that's even possible. Three strangers  
had followed her back from the forest: a woman and two men, all with bright red eyes. Carlisle and Jasper met them at the edge of the clearing. The whole exchange lasted only a few minutes, but I felt every heartbeat in my throat as the time slid by. I was hyper-aware of the feeling. After all, I was the only one in that clearing with a beating heart.

The three vampires turned to leave but not before one of the men, a blonde who was somehow inherently scarier than the other two, made quick eye contact with me.

"Rose," Edward cursed under his breath, and I felt his sister come to a halt just behind my back. I could have passed out from the confusing mix of terror and lust, sandwiched there between the two of them. I was acutely aware of their bodies but not able to see their faces. 

Edward didn't turn around as he spoke. His attention was focused on the trees where the nomadic vampires, Victoria, James, and Laurent, had fallen back into the forest. "Get her out of here. Take Alice and Jasper. You'll need them." 

Cold, wet fingers interlaced with mine from behind, and I let go of the umbrella in surprise. Rosalie caught it quickly in place, not letting it fall more than a centimeter from where I’d been holding it. Her voice was low and serious," Let's go."

She led me quickly to Emmet's Jeep. Jasper and Alice were already in the back seat. Rosalie slid into the driver’s side, and I felt an overwhelming sense of calm as I took shotgun.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked casually. Now unsure.

"Jasper, turn it down a notch. You're gonna get the poor girl high," Rosalie said as she reached across the center console and carefully but quickly backed out of the makeshift baseball flied. One hand on the wheel, hat still on backwards, looking over her shoulder in her brother’s Jeep, she looked like any other teenager. Her hair was dripping, making a big wet spot under her long braid. I couldn't help but look. She was right, Jasper's calming aura was a little too euphoric. I chewed my bottom lip and struggled to break my gaze away from Rosalie's chest. If they always played in the rain, and their jerseys were white, why would she knowingly wear a black bra? Riding out my vampire high, I let myself enjoy the idea that she did it to show off. For me.

I sat in my seat, warmed internally by fantasies of what Vampire Jock Barbie looked like under her jersey. Meanwhile my dripping clothes and hair made a cold puddle around me. I didn’t really notice that part though. I wasn’t even shivering. Jasper was definitely laying it on too thick. The feeling was intoxicating, and I was grateful for it after the number of close calls I’d had today.

"Okay, Alice, you got a plan yet?" Rosalie asked firmly as she drove back towards town.

"Yeah, I do, but…I don’t know if Edward's gonna like it," Alice responded. Her tone was…weird.

"Fuck what he thinks. Are you serious?" Rosalie's voice sounded less intense now. Maybe she just needed to drop an F-bomb at her telepathic brother’s expense to make her feel better.

"Take us back to Bella's house,” Alice instructed. “Bella," she turned her attention to me, "do you think you can convince your dad that we're having a sleepover for the weekend?"

My brain short circuited, and I stammered, "A... a what?" I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly, and the initial Jasper high was slowly starting to wear off, leaving me foggy.

“Sleepover," Rosalie repeated, testing the idea. "No, this is good I see where you're going, Al." She directed the next part at me, "We’ll tell Charlie you're staying with us for like... girl time." She mocked her own choice of words and continued, "That'll give you an excuse to pack an  
overnight bag and be M.I.A. for a few days without freaking your dad out. It's a good plan.”

I tried to process what she was saying, but I had so many questions. I settled for a simple, "Okay." Act now, ask later. Plus, I knew I could trust her. She'd already saved my life once today.


	5. A Sleepover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where we really start to break away from the canon plot line. James is still the bad guy, but the way he gets dealt with is going to be different than in the original books. I want to involve Bella's parents in my version as little as possible, so don't be alarmed at the changes!

Convincing Charlie to let me have a "sleepover" with the girls was easy. Alice had laid on the charm pretty thick, and Jasper had helped keep him from getting suspicious—from the car of course. No boys allowed at this sleepover, as Alice had insisted multiple times, to put the sheriff at ease.

We had packed two bags, one that was genuinely my overnight bag, and one that Emmett picked up from us on our way out of town. They were going to try to throw James off my scent. He was a hunter, and his favorite sport was hunting people's loved ones. It gave him a thrill, Rosalie had explained with disgust on our ride to the airport.

The four of us (Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and myself) were meant to hide out in Phoenix for the weekend while Carlisle, Edward, Emmett and Esme dealt with James. Unfortunately, these are the circumstances under which I found out about Carlisle’s private jet. In any other scenario, it might have been exciting, but under the heavy vampire mood sedation of one Jasper Hale, I wasn’t in a position to pinpoint exactly how I felt about it. Except that now I knew how filthy rich his dad was.

Jasper pulled our rental car into the parking garage of an unnecessarily fancy hotel just before dawn. I had fallen asleep in the back seat. Gentle hands moved my head from the hard but comfortable pillow I had made for myself out of Rosalie's shoulder. If I had been half conscious, I would have been mortified. 

As it were, someone carried my exhausted body up to our adjoining suites, changed me from my travel clothes into pajamas, and tucked me in to a king-sized bed. 

I slept through most of the day and woke up to the sound of room service knocking on the door around 4:00pm.

“Shit! Does ‘do not disturb’ mean nothing to you?" Rosalie's frustrated voice grumbled as she answered the door to the room. Was it our room or just mine? I tried to pretend I was still asleep, but she wasn't buying it.

"I know you're awake. I can hear your heartrate, Bella," she said half annoyed and half apologetic.

I gave up the charade and sat up in the big, plush hotel bed. Something jabbed me in the ribs, and I realized I’d slept in my bra. That was not ideal for comfort, but the alternative was..."Did you put me in pajamas last night?” In my half-awake state, I didn't think to come up with a better way of asking.

"It was technically this morning, but yes. I wasn't going to let you sleep in your clothes from the plane. That's," she shuddered and stuck out her tongue in disgust. "You hungry?" She dropped a covered catering dish on the fluffy white comforter and plopped herself down next to it, stretching her legs out off of the side of the bed. "Alice ordered you a burger."

I lifted the lid on the tray, and my mouth watered. I realized I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours. The grim thought that followed gave me pause, and I looked up into Rosalie's eyes. 

Butterscotch. Not black.

"When did you have time to hunt?" I asked. Apparently, I could be quite blunt when I was this hungry and disoriented. The vampire looked slightly offended at the personal question, so I backpedaled, "I mean, you don't have to tell... " 

“No, no, it's fine. Sorry, did I make a weird face? That burger just smells so repulsive," she pulled her hair off of her neck with long, deft fingers and twisted it up into a bun, tying it in a knot. Her hair was so long that the bun just stayed there where she put it without the aid of a hair tie. She continued, "We took shifts watching you so everyone could feed. It was kind of difficult actually. It's so sunny here."

I noticed then that the blinds were shut. Taking a bite of the fancy burger on the giant bed across from my supermodel vampire…friend?...I felt emboldened. "You know, you don't have to hide from me.” I nodded my head toward the closed blackout curtains and took another bite of the burger. It was heavenly. I couldn't imagine a universe where it smelled anything short of mouthwatering.

Rosalie blinked at the curtains, processing what I'd said. Then she laughed her loud, operatic laugh. "Bella, you are so sweet, but how did you expect to sleep with the sun shining in your face? We closed those for your benefit, not ours." She pulled her legs up onto the bed, crisscrossing them, making herself more comfortable and in turn making me much more uncomfortable. I blushed furiously.

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense," I mumbled, feeling like an idiot. Rosalie shook her head in a wry gesture. 

Great, I thought, she agrees that I’m an idiot. 

She got up off the bed, heading toward the window. I exhaled, steeling myself in case she was going to use this opportunity to embarrass me more. "Rose, what are you..."

“If you wanted to see me sparkle so badly,” she said, the sarcastic smile audible in her voice, “all you had to do was ask.”

Before I could respond she threw back the curtains. It was golden hour—orange and purple light streamed into the little hotel room. It would have been beautiful on its own, but this was spectacular. The moment the sun hit Rosalie's skin, it was refracted as if by a million tiny diamonds, shifting and glittering on the white walls of the hotel suite. 

She turned back toward me, bathed in the light of the Arizona of the sunset, quite literally glowing with supernatural radiance. I was vaguely aware that my jaw had dropped open, but I was too awestruck to close my mouth. So, I just sat there. Staring in stunned silence. With a half-eaten burger in my lap.

A huge, triumphant smile broke out on her face and my heart stopped for a second that felt like an eternity. I didn’t think she could be any more beautiful, but I had been so wrong. 

She came closer, closing the gap between us. The glittering effect was subdued slightly the now that she wasn’t right next to the window. She stopped at the edge of the bed, and her hands rested on my crisscrossed knees, pressing down lightly as she leaned in. A long, alabaster finger pressed up under my chin and popped my mouth shut. I blinked, too overstimulated to do much else. The hand left on my knee slowly traveled up my thigh as her other palm cupped my jaw. She spoke quietly, barely an inch from my face, her eyes darting down to my mouth before locking on my own. 

"I'm much prettier than your boyfriend, Edward, huh?" she preened. The words dripped from her mouth, heavy with implication, but I fixated on a particular one.

“He's not my boyfriend,” I squeaked back. I couldn't muster much volume yet, caught in the surreal moment of light, color, and delicious physical contact.

“Does he know that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow but keeping her tone smooth and flirtatious. 

I opened my mouth to respond, but her thumb caught the edge of my bottom lip. It instantly scrambled my brain. She dragged the pad of her finger from one end of my mouth to the other, holding it open slightly. Her eyes followed along intently. It felt like my whole body was on fire despite the coldness of her touch.

“What?" was all I could manage in my stupefied state.

She exhaled out a short, quiet laugh, "You're cute when you're flustered, Bella.” 

Her hand moved up from my mouth to cup my burning hot cheek. Her pointer finger traced around the edge of my ear feeling the warm blush under my skin there. 

"I missed this. So soft and warm," she said quietly to herself. I don’t think she realized she had said it out loud. Her hand fell away and she blinked rapidly like she was breaking out of a trance. I felt it as soon as she broke contact. I was finally able to breathed again and shifted on the bed as she pulled away in a blur. She landed in the chair by the window, not upset or brooding, just lost in thought. She’d pulled the curtains partially closed on her way to the chair, not fully blocking out the sun, but not letting herself into the light again either.

"Hey, Rose?" my voice was back. The spell had been broken. "Are you okay?" I asked carefully. “You can tell me."

She continued to stare at her knees, so I decided to take a small, calculated risk. I moved the room service tray to the bedside table and scooted off the bed. My feet bravely carried me to  
the second chair facing Rosalie's, and I prompted her again "Hey."

She looked up then and smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. I thought if she could cry, those butterscotch eyes would probably be watering. She looked so delicate and sad. It was alarming, but I tried not to seem alarmed. I just waited until she was ready to talk. She eventually did.

“I’m sorry we pulled you into,” she waved her hand around and broke eye contact again, “all of this.”

“What?” I asked, keeping my tone light, “The vampire stuff? I don’t know if you’ve talked to your brother about this, but it was kind of my decision.” I tried to reassure her, but I don’t know how convincing I sounded. Part of me agreed with her. Their world was turning out to be much more dangerous than I could have imagined.

“Ha,” she laughed without humor, “Yeah my brother is definitely a big part of it.” She paused, but I knew she had more to say.

“Rose, say what’s on your mind. I can take it. I’m a big girl.”

She scrubbed her hands through her hair, pulling out her bun and letting it fall around her face. Her forehead rested in her palms, and she planted her elbows on her knees for support. I could tell she was struggling with what to say next. “Edward is…a lot more dangerous to you than he is to anyone else. You know this, but he’s a control freak, and you’re the one person he’s ever met in his entire vampire life who is completely out of his control. He can’t hear you and he can’t resist you. It’s…it’s making him reckless.” 

She took a breath and melted backwards into the chair, tilting her head up to look at the ceiling. “You may be comfortable around us, but he’s less comfortable around you than he’s letting on. I’m afraid he’s going to snap.” She readjusted herself in the chair and looked at me, waiting for a response.

I really was not sure what to say. She had just voiced all the fears I’d already had over the past 48 hours. “Does he think he’s going to…snap?” I asked, though I was not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

She nodded her head, “Sometimes. But he also thinks he can ultimately handle it. He always thinks he can handle things. He has a hero complex, you know. I mean, look who I’m talking to. You definitely do know.”

“I definitely do,” I agreed. My next question just sort of came out without my permission: “So why go through all the trouble to keep me alive?” 

Rosalie’s back straightened and her eyebrows shot up. “Bella, what? How could you ask that?” she sounded hurt. 

I tried to rationalize my question, but it only made it sound worse. “You said it yourself, and Edward has said it to me a million times already.” I deepened my voice to imitate her brother, “I’m a killer, Bella.” 

The joke did not loosen her up like I’d hoped it would. I pressed on, “I understand that I’m not like you and I’m not meant to be part of your family, but,” I paused, thrown off by the emotion that was seeping into my voice. Rosalie took the opportunity to jump in.

“I don’t know about that,” she said it very sincerely. Then, she got up from her chair and crouched down in front of my knees. An unexpected tear welled up in my eye, threatening to fall if I opened my mouth to speak again. The sun was almost all the way down now, and the dying daylight reflected subtly on the side of her face. “I care about you, Bella,” she squeezed my knees gently in emphasis. “Against my better judgement.” 

I smiled at that and choked out a laugh. It jostled the tears from my eyes and down my cheeks. I tried to wipe them away, embarrassed that I was getting emotional about something so simple as having friends who cared about me. She caught both of my wrists in one hand and smiled back, deep understanding and empathy swimming in her golden irises. 

“I care about you too,” I said with a small voice. “I mean, obviously. Look, you made me cry.” My voice was still shaky as I tried to joke it off.

“Come here,” she said and pulled me down to meet her on the floor. She gathered my small frame into a strong hug. It wasn’t warm, but it was really fucking nice to be held. I didn’t realize how much I needed it. I leaned in and sighed, letting the last tears fall. 

“I’m sorry. I’m crying into your hair.”

Her chest rumbled with a laugh, I could feel it reverberate in my own body. “It’s okay, but what can I do to help you stop crying?” She spoke into the top of my head, holding me tight against her on the floor. My body was starting to relax, but my mind was beginning to race. I felt so safe in her arms—safer than I had felt in days.

“This is good. I think I’m almost done with the feelings,” I said, not loosening my grip around her shoulders. The tears were quickly being replaced by an awareness of every place our bodies were pressed together.

“You’re so warm. And soft,” this time she had meant for me to hear it.

“You said that already,” I responded without thinking.

She peeled my limp body from her and held my shoulders just far enough away to be able to make eye contact. “Did I?” she asked. Her embarrassment was priceless.

I knew she hadn’t meant to say it out loud before. 

I nodded, “mhm. You know, you’re not as scary as you pretend to be.”

“Who says I’m pretending?” Her hands moved quickly. One slid just below my jaw and the other pulled my face away from my shoulder, exposing my neck. She leaned down and flashed her teeth. My breath caught in my throat. Her voice was low and seductive, “Maybe you just like scary. Ever consider that, Miss Swan?” She nipped at the skin on my neck playfully, and I yelped.

I slapped her arm in protest and tried not to wince at the contact. I forgot I was slapping a marble statue. “Are you kidding me right now?!” I exclaimed.

Caught up in a moment of silliness, she covered the spot where she’d bitten me with a quick, tiny kiss and hoisted me up off the carpet to straddle her lap. That shut us both up. I wasn’t sure if she’d known what she was doing, but the electric energy was overwhelming. After a moment of stillness, her hands slid tentatively up the backs of my knees. Then my thighs, the unasked question hanging in the few inches between out faces.

“Rosalie,” I said quietly. Her hands were still traveling up, gentle fingers pressing into the roundness of my hips. Very slowly.

“Yeah,” she whispered back. Her eyes were wide, waiting for permission, and her hands suddenly stopped, supporting my weight on the small of my back.

“Please. Kiss me.” I breathed.

Her hands darted up to either side of my face, and my hips sank hard down into her lap at the sudden loss of support. I grabbed onto her own waist to keep myself from falling backward, and she pulled me in to a deep slow kiss. It was tender and careful, but somehow still eager. I could feel her trying not to hurt me by accident with her sometimes-uncontrollable strength. The sentiment gave me butterflies, and the feeling of our lips pressing together lit a small flame in the pit of my belly. 

Her tongue flicked out, testing, asking my permission. I reciprocated. I wanted to taste her. 

It was strange and pleasant. Her tongue was icy and her breath was cool. It was so different than anything I had thought a kiss like this would be. Her hands tangled into my hair, and I started to get a little dizzy. To my surprise, I let out a small moan. She smiled against my mouth, and for that brief moment, I was given the opportunity to breathe. I inhaled quickly, not realizing the dizziness was probably from a lack of oxygen. 

“Jesus,” I cursed under my breath.

“Oops,” Rose laughed quietly to herself and pressed her forehead against mine. “Forgot humans have to breathe.”

We stared at each other like that for a lingering moment, and I let myself slip out of her lap back onto the floor. My knees were still draped over her thighs and she was still holding my face in her hands when the sliding door connecting my room to the adjoining suite rolled open. We both snapped our heads toward the sound, still wrapped around each other, too surprised to move from our incriminating position.

It was Alice. She was rubbing her temples and did not seem amused. The tiny clairvoyant took one look at us and turned around. She left the door open, and spoke to us from her room, “I warned you Edward wasn’t going to like this plan. It’s your funeral, Rosalie.”

Rose leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes, scrunching up her face and tilting her nose up to the ceiling. 

“Motherfucker.”


End file.
